Everything Kalen DeBoer said at 2025 SEC spring meetings

Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer was in Miramar Beach, Florida on Tuesday for the start of the SEC’s spring meetings. He spoke to reporters for roughly 15 minutes and touched on a variety of topics. Below is everything DeBoer said while at the Hilton Sandestin. 

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Good morning, and hope all of you had a good Memorial Day weekend. It’s good to be here with y’all. We’ve got some big meetings here today and tomorrow. 

“But from our standpoint, looking forward to a big month ahead for our football team. Guys getting back today, working out as we speak. And so I’m looking forward to getting back with them, as well. The month of May, a lot of guys got a chance to get home. But I know that they put in a ton of work and got a lot of opportunities to go do things with teammates, found trainers and all that kind of stuff. And now we get back together and get to focus on us, doing it together as our program. 

“And then obviously recruiting, it’s a big month for recruiting and camps, as well. A little bit of downtime for July. Our coaches have been going non-stop, really, when you look at the schedule. We’ve got spring ball, then they were on the road with spring recruiting and now, we’re getting right into everything we just mentioned.”

DeBoer on if being left out of the playoff makes him hesitant on a 9-game SEC schedule…

“I’m open to whatever. I’m open to hearing the conversations. There are certainly thoughts you have, but I can’t say that they’re concrete in my mind. Yeah, you kind of wonder what would have happened if other people would have had the chance to play our schedule last year, and that would only get tougher. I know if you played a full SEC 9-game schedule, I know from our end, going into this season, we’re playing 10 Power Four games with Florida State and Wisconsin this year on top of the eight (SEC) games. I know we haven’t held back at this point on anything when it comes to playing a tough schedule, non-conference-wise. 

“So you would certainly have to look at those things as it applies if you play nine regular-season games that are all in the SEC. The question I have is: how do you really – strength of schedule as you get more and more conference games, how do you really understand what the strength of schedule is from conference to conference? It’s pretty easy with other sports when they play – basketball, softball, baseball, whatever it might be – and you have all these non-conference games. So that’s beyond me to figure out. I’m just going to play the games that we can schedule and adjust accordingly as we change the SEC games, if that’s the case.”

DeBoer on recruiting with so much unknown (House settlement, revenue sharing, etc.)…

“That’s a really good question. And that’s certainly the question we are working through right now. That’s even just with our own team. We have a full team on campus right now, and I believe still a lot of those guys that are walk-ons actually have their name in the portal because they have to be able to adjust. We’ve fortunately got some guys that really want to be at Alabama in those walk-on roles, and if the roster size was reduced they and we would have to adjust accordingly, also. But as we get into June here, those conversations are tricky when you don’t know the parameters you’re playing with. But I feel confident we’ve got a competitive – we have an understanding, a little bit, of the baseline if this goes through, and that’s really what we’re working off of at this point.”

DeBoer on if Alabama’s resources have changed his recruiting pitch compared to other stops…

“That’s always been a big part – we’ve pitched that a lot. When guys come on campus and they see our players using the equipment they’re using that is different than a lot of places and seeing the depth and magnitude of our staff. Our facilities, there’s a lot of work that’s been done in the training room, weight room. We have great facilities all around. And then you add the tradition, what it’s like to play in Bryant-Denny Stadium, the list goes on and on of the things that we continue to, just like always, have brought guys to our program. And then, of course, I think selling our staff is really easy because they get around them. Our players are as good as any when it comes to recruiting because they just do what they do, they are who they are and that’s very attractive to the guys that are going to come onto our campus over the next month.”

DeBoer on if he has a number of what he thinks would be OK for a playoff format…

“I don’t right now, and I’m wide open to that. I know I’ve been part now – we weren’t in the 12-team playoff but obviously saw what that looked like, and I’ve been part of a 16-team playoff at smaller colleges, and that was just four weeks of games. I don’t think you’re probably looking much beyond that, as far as the number of teams entering the playoff, but that’s my experiences. So I think there’s also just the details that go into how those teams are picked, how they’re seeded. I think that’s a lot of it, as well. So I’m certainly open-minded to either of those and everything that comes along with it.”

DeBoer on if how you get to that number is more important than the number itself…

“I think that’s probably a lot of what’s gonna be discussed here today and tomorrow and how we feel about that. I think a lot of that has already been said by commissioner (Greg) Sankey.”

DeBoer on where things stand from a health standpoint…

“There will be a group – and there’s too many as a whole that are still coming off of last season, missed some time during during spring ball – but there’ll be a pretty good group that now is in full swing, and just a few guys that have what we refer to as limited or limited contact – I mean, there’s not contact now – but limited and just kind of monitoring their situations as they go through the month of June. But by the time we hit August, we feel very confident that we will have everyone back and be ready to roll at the level we need to. 

“Guys are pouring everything into it right now. They are almost over the top with the work that they want to put in because of the desire they have to want to be great and have an amazing season. And really, coming off of last year, you know, want to prove some people right and prove some people wrong.”

DeBoer on what he would tell himself before he walked into the door for Year 1 at Alabama…

“I think a lot of it was just the early piece, just understanding what the timing of it was in January. I think that was the hardest part. The season and the ups and downs, I’ve been part of that. I think the first year is always extremely hard because there are going to be things that come your way that you just know are going to be hard to handle. And a lot of times, it’s the wins and losses that I’m talking about. 

“But I think last year, it didn’t play itself out like you want, but I think a lot of things that came weren’t so farfetched when it came to what you expect a first-year season in the SEC to be at Alabama. It’s going to be a grind. It’s going to test you, as far as staying the course, and just test our team as far as sticking together. That’s going to be every year, and it just is on another level, I guess, when you really look at guys leaving the program and not getting an opportunity to bring too many in just because of the timing of when the transition happened.

“But we’re in a good spot right now because I think our guys have really found out who wants to be here. They’ve really dug in deep. We’ve got a great mix of upperclassmen that understand what it takes, mixed with some young guys that either got their feet wet last year or are coming in and have been really accepted in a way that they feel appreciated by the guys who have gone through it. So I’m really looking forward to this team, this next 6-8 months.”

DeBoer on if there was anything unique about being in the South that was unexpected…

“I think when you move around – I’m from the Midwest. I think there’s a lot more Midwest in the South than people probably realize. Yeah, there’s different levels of heat because there’s hot and humid, that whole thing. That’s the question I get asked the most is how do you handle the weather? But I think when it comes to people, I think there’s just great people everywhere. I’ve lived in different parts of  the country, not necessarily the East Coast, but from Michigan and Indiana on over to the West Coast, you find that there are more similarities than there are differences.”

DeBoer on what he thinks about the idea of a “play-in” weekend…

“I think any time you have a chance to be in a play-in game that’s still part of the playoffs – and I’m thinking just generally speaking and not specifically about Alabama – I think that adds to the excitement. It keeps more people interested in where their team sits. But again, I don’t know enough about how that would look and how that would relate to a conference championship or anything like that, those weeks, how that would all add up to what we have already to find a national champion. I think there will be a lot in the next couple days that I’ll probably learn, just like all of us, and hopefully, keep the ball moving enough to where we can figure out and what’s best. I don’t know if there is a perfect solution. You just have to figure out what’s best for everyone involved.”

DeBoer on the challenge from coaching Jalen Milroe to a QB with a different skill set…

“I think with Jalen, he just had added elements to his game, right? He could throw the ball, but you had to make sure you were utilizing, to benefit your team, the things he could do with his legs. I think that making sure you’re incorporating more offense where he can take advantage of that and we can take advantage of that, it then forces you to have to figure out where you’re taking away, because there are only so many snaps you play in a game or a season. Who’s touching the ball? And it’s going to take away from someone else, and you’re trying to figure out that balancing act. And a lot of it has to depend on the other personnel you have around him, and that will continue to be the case as we move forward this year. 

“We do have probably three guys that are more alike than different. Jalen was certainly different, and I mean that in a position way. I mean that with the utmost respect for what Jalen’s game is all about because he’s got some special elements to his game when it comes to running that, really, I have never been able to coach and very few have seen.”

DeBoer on how he handles the evaluation of quarterbacks in June…

“In June, we get more opportunities now than you used to a few years back to be around them, whether it’s in the classroom or on the field. So there’s leadership. These guys all were doing things through the month of May on their own. And as much as they don’t have to let us know what they’re all doing, you do know, because position coaches are keeping track of all their guys and understanding the workload that they’re taking on and where they’re at. These guys did a great job, all three of them, of really doing some of those leadership things and going places and bringing guys together.

“And the best part about it was they all – it wasn’t like one quarterback took three guys and another quarterback took these four. They all did it together, and that’s what I guess I appreciate about this group of guys. It is a competition. I’ve referred to it as a healthy one just because I think they all respect each other. They’re all going as hard as they can. They’re going to step on each other’s toes at times in that leadership role, but so be it. And I appreciate the way they’ve gotten after it. And June will be a big month to take the next step. 

“In the end, we’re tracking everything in August, just like we did in the spring. And it doesn’t always come down to who had the highest competition percentage because sometimes it’s so close. It’s a lot of times a mixture of who’s moving the ball down the field the most? That’s what’s most important, right, is putting points on the board. So who’s keeping the ball? Who’s making the least amount of mistakes? Big mistakes in particular. But then you’re also trying to give them all a chance because they’re at different points in their career, where their growth is happening in different ways. No one has a significant amount of playing-time reps in a game. But obviously, they are at different levels and all have different things that they’ve shown us that they can do at a high level already this spring.”

*** On3’s Andy Staples contributed to this report.

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